Semiconductor devices such as processors and memory devices reside in many computers and electronic products to process and store data. Some of these devices use recovery circuits to recover the original versions of the clock and data signals that may be degraded by signal jitter or other forms of noise.
In many cases, the recovery circuit may be evaluated to determine its performance limitations. Some evaluation methods use external test equipment to inject signal noise into signal paths of the recovery circuit to simulate actual operating conditions. Output data from the recovery circuit is evaluated to determine the performance of the recovery circuit.
As semiconductor devices increasingly operate at relatively higher frequencies, the recovery circuits also operate at relatively higher frequencies. Therefore, in some cases, external test equipment may become more expensive to properly test high-frequency recovery circuits.